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Starting your first factory
So, you've just started playing and you are confused. Well here's a quick guide to "the first night" although this will span longer than one measly night. First, find an area where coal, copper and iron are present. Stone should be a decent walk away, same with water. But don't bother with trying to get all 5 resources in the same area, it's unlikely unless you set the spawn rates high. Anyway, place your first drill down on some iron. Then, gather some coal. you may want to create a pickax by hitting "E" and going through the tabs until you find one. Note that you can only make one, so get some iron quick so you can make more. Once you've gathered some coal (right click+hold on some) head back up to your drill. left click on it and place some coal into the "fuel" spot. This will start up the drill. If you've gotten some wood, you might want to put a box down where the ore is coming out so that you don't have to hold down "F" near it to pick all of the ore up. oh yeah - "F" picks up anything on the ground near you that's not bolted to the dirt. Repeat this strategy with the copper, and even the coal itself if you want. There you go! A little machine! Your first automation You feel like a pro now, don't you? I see you running between those crates, picking up coal and restocking the engines. Well now it's time to get serious. Like, real serious. Automation. First, have a nice stockpile of coal and iron. Create 3 "burner inserters," they can be found in the logistics tab. You will also need some conveyor belts - also in the logistics tab. Now, replace where the coal and iron come out with conveyor belts. You can press "r" to rotate them. Next, imagine a 3x3 block somewhere empty. Lead the conveyors to your "block" on the ground. Make sure that this invisible block has both conveyor belts leading to the middle of it. (see the on the right for a reference) Now, take a furnace and place it in the bottom right corner. Then place the burner inserters down next to the conveyors. You can rotate those too. When hovering over the burners, two little symbols will pop up. rotate it so that the line is facing the conveyor belt, and the arrow is pointing at the furnace. There you go! A start with automation. Fuel the two arms and the furnace with some coal, and it will now auto-smelt the iron ore into plates! now that that's done, you can place another burner inserter pointing away from the furnace. this will take the iron plates out of the furnace and into a chest/conveyor belt to another area. This basic auto-smelter is a building block for a successful ore mine. Finishing up Now you've got some basics down. hopefully this helped! (I know I could have used it starting!)